Oh The Weather Outside Was Frightful, And To Thieves The Fates Were Spiteful

On the same morning within about 2 and a half hours of each other, two separate theft attempts in Abbotsford, B.C., were foiled by the weather. The snow, to be specific.

The second and I think slightly less humourous of the two happened around 7:15 A.M. on the morning of February 7th (happy birthday, Carin!) when an unidentified man spotted a Ford Focus that its owner had left unattended and idling. Don’t ever do that, by the way. Whether I mean leave your car running and alone or drive a Ford Focus is for you to decide, but in any event, that man decided to give the lonely Focus some attention, so hopped in and took off. Unfortunately for him and perhaps for Ford’s ad agency, he only made it about a block before getting the damn thing hopelessly stuck in the snow. But instead of leaving and maybe managing a clean getaway, this fella decided that now that he’s already made a scene, it would be a good time to scoop up documents with the rightful owners name all over them plus take the keys before running away. He got about as far as the Focus before police caught up with him.

And before that, there was this.

Abbotsford police spokesman Const. Ian MacDonald said that after a residential break and enter around 5 a.m., the suspect’s van became stuck in snow near a popular, central fast-food restaurant. The suspect then asked a passerby for help.
“The person he asks is the victim of the break and enter,” MacDonald said. “Yup.”
Of the 140,000 people in Abbotsford the suspect could have asked for assistance, it was the victim of his crime, who had just finished reviewing security footage of the incident.
The victim instantly recognized the driver and phoned police. Officers arrived promptly and arrested the suspect who was “quite well known to police,” MacDonald said.

I don’t know if the biggest lesson to be learned here is don’t commit break-ins, asking for help is bad for you or it snows every year, but that last one may be good to keep in mind if you’re determined to ignore the first.